Abstract

• The main purpose of this study was to study perceived social support of pre-service teachers in Sagaing University of Education. The study conducted descriptive research design and quantitative survey method. The participants in this study were 360 pre-service teachers including 180 males and 180 females from Sagaing University of Education. In this study, the student’s perceived social support was assessed by using Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL) Questionnaire including 4 subscales: appraisal support, tangible support, self -esteem support and belonging support. The whole scale of Interpersonal Support Evaluation List (ISEL) Questionnaire indicated satisfactory internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha = 0.88. And data analysis, descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test were used in this study. Concerning dimensions of perceived social support, there was significant difference only in tangible support and self-esteem support by gender at p<0.01 and p<0.05 levels. It was found that males had higher tangible support than females whereas females had higher self-esteem support than males. Afterwards, fifth-year students had higher perceived social support than first-year students. The result highlighted that the more matured the students were, the more perceived social support they had. The t-test result showed that there was significant difference in tangible support and belonging support by grade at p<0.01 and p<0.05 levels. It may be due to the fact that as fifth-year students were aged, they can communicate with the people well and have more experiences on the social activities.